Lightbeam- How to shed some light on the websites we visit
Today I tried using the Firefox plugin Lightbeam. It’s an extremely easy to use add-on that shows you what first and third party websites you interact with online. In the 20 minutes I spent with Lightbeam installed on my computer I visited 6 sites: Facebook, Twitter, Temptalia, A.V. Club, Youtube, and Google. I was interested to see what information Lightbeam would provide me for each of these websites.
Facebook:
- Server Location- Ireland
- # of third-party sites- 5
Twitter:
- Server location- United States
- # of third-party sites- 7
Temptalia:
- Server location- United States
- # of third-party sites- 50
A.V. Club:
- Server location- United States
- # of third-party sites- 49
Youtube:
- Server location- United States
- # of third-party sites- 13
Google:
- Server location- United States
- # of third-party sites- 3
The thing I was most surprised by was that the websites that connected me to the highest amount of third-party sites weren’t Twitter and Facebook, but rather the smaller sites like Temptalia (a makeup review site) and the A.V. Club (an entertainment website). I think Lightbeam is a really cool plug-in that really is very illuminating; if you haven’t tried it I definitely recommend getting it.
